SYDNEY (Reuters) -Rugby Australia will not renew the contract of Director of Rugby Scott Johnson when it expires at the end of the year as they review the structure of the organisation, the governing body said on Friday.
The former Scotland coach was brought in by former chief executive Raelene Castle in 2018 to try to rein in Michael Cheika as her relationship with the Wallabies coach deteriorated at the end of Australia’s worst test season in 60 years.
Johnson oversaw a selection panel that chose the Wallabies team with Cheika and drove a new high-performance structure where the Super Rugby teams would work more closely with the national team coaches in the New Zealand model.
Cheika and Castle both departed within months of Australia’s quarter-final exit at the 2019 World Cup to be replaced by Dave Rennie and Andy Marinos respectively.
“He stepped into his role at a difficult time within Australian rugby and has played an important role at an important time for the game in Australia,” Marinos said in a statement on Friday.
Marinos also announced that coaches of the men’s and women’s sevens programmes would be swapping jobs.
Tim Walsh returns to a role he held from 2013 to 2018, when he led Australia’s women to gold at the 2016 Rio Olympics and silver at the Commonwealth Games two years later.
John Manenti, who has led the women’s programme for the last three years, will take over the men’s squad.
“Their reappointments into different roles has been extended right through to Paris (2024 Olympics) and that (reflects) our confidence in them as individuals and what we think they can bring to the programme,” Marinos told reporters.
“This has been part of a big review process … and we’re very happy to have landed where we have with both these gentlemen.”
(Reporting by Nick Mulvenney, editing by Ed Osmond/Peter Rutherford)
